First Cuppa Coffee – February 29th, 2012 : Leap Day Edition

Happy 29th! There’s an extra day this month…. It happens every four years and here’s the how & why. Disneyland(s) have decided to celebrate the extra day by staying open all night; one has to wonder just how terrific parents of young children and the Disney employees that have to put up with the late night tantrums will feel about this. The Catholic Church, not to be out done as an entertainment venue, celebrates today in honor of am Archbishop of York (St. Oswald) who happened to die on February 29th…

The official foods of the 29th... Over at Chowhound, where the foodie world intersects with social media, it has been suggested that the Italian specialty Saltimbocca is the perfect meal du jour. (A rough translation of the named dish equates to ‘leap in the mouth’…) In North Park, the restaurants that normally celebrate 30 on 30th have renamed their events (always fun and bargain filled!) 30 on 30th on the 29th… Local animal rights activists will be picketing Bicerestaurant this evening to protest the inclusion of Foie Gras on its menus. A California law prohibiting the producing or selling of Foie Gras will be taking effect on July 1st of this year.

The art of the 29th… Leapin’ lizards! Weburbanist is offering up a collection of relevant posters for those of you who feel the need to waste printer ink and wish to decorate today. And on this date in 1940Gone with The Wind won the Oscar for Best Picture. The film received 10 Academy Awards (8 competitive, 2 honorary), a record that stood for 20 years until Ben-Hur surpassed it in 1960.

The history of the 29th… On this date in 1504 Christopher Columbus used his knowledge of lunar eclipses to convince Native Americans to supply his ships with supplies…. The 29th President of the United States, the lackluster Warren G. Harding, is remembered for this quote: “I am not fit for this office and should never have been here.”

Things that go bump on the 29th… Microsoft has decided to “go public” with Windows 8 today. It’s being called a “consumer preview” rather than a “beta release”. No word yet on whether they’ve kept the ‘blue screen of death’ as an option…

Enough with the 29th already!… It’s a good day for local politics news junkies. First off, there’s this video from Channel 6, where upon they actually got local AFL-CIO leader Lorena Gonzalez into the same room with Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio to debate the pension reform measure slated for June’s ballot. It’s totally worth watching.

While we here at the Cuppa world headquarters generally ignore press releases, we’re choosing to make an exception for this bit from NBC 7 News. In addition to broadcasting two live Mayoral debates this spring, the local affiliate has decided to reward correspondent Gene Cubbison for his decades of being brave enough to stand downwind from local politicos. He’ll have his own slot, dubbed “Politically Speaking” following Meet the Press on Sundays, focusing on local politics and analysis relevant to San Diegans. We will be watching…

A change in the rules at NPR... We’re thrilled to read in the newest edition of “The NPR Code of Ethics and Practices” that the radio network has revised its standards away from “he said, she said” journalism, whose premises of fairness were often derailed by its failure to produce news accounts that were “fair to the truth”. Already we’ve heard instances in reportage where correspondents have been braver about calling out obvious falsehoods rather than leaving them to air unchallenged in the interests of “balance”. Now if we could just get even one local reporter to challenge Carl DeMaio’s faulty assertions about six figure pensions (the fat retirement deals he cites are all retired management employees) awarded to retired union members….

Keep in Touch!

Welcome to the OB Rag – Ocean Beach & Beyond

The OB Rag has been initiated to ply the Ocean Beach community and the San Diego scene with news and commentary from a distinctively progressive and grassroots perspective, and to provide a forum for those views. Others with similar views are invited to contribute and participate. More about us...

Support the OB Rag! Purchase old copies - 20% off Help keep the OB Rag online by donating to buy 30-35 year old issues of the original OB Rag, Ocean Beach's infamous and iconic counterculture, underground newspaper; limited numbers are available for purchase!